NationMaster - Encyclopedia: European Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment refers to either the eighteenth century in European philosophy, or the longer period including the seventeenth century and the Age of Reason. It can more narrowly refer to the historical intellectual movement The Enlightenment, which advocated Reason as a means to establishing an authoritative system of aesthetics, ethics, government, and logic, which, they supposed, would allow human beings to obtain objective truth about the universe. Emboldened by the revolution in physics commenced by Newtonian kinematics, Enlightenment thinkers argued that the same kind of systematic thinking could apply to all forms of human activity. Image File history File links Cropped version of [1] File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... For the book by Bertrand Russell, see History of Western Philosophy (Russell) Philosophy has a long history conventionally divided into three large eras: the Ancient, Medieval and Modern. ... The Pre-Socratic philosophers were active before Socrates or contemporaneously, but expounding knowledge developed earlier. ... This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, although for Western thinkers prior to Socrates, see Pre-Socratic philosophy. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... By region Italian Renaissance Spanish Renaissance Northern Renaissance French Renaissance German Renaissance English Renaissance In his book The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt argued that, beginning in the 14th century a transformation in outlook and ideas began in Italy which would later cover all of Europe. ... 17th-century philosophy in the West is generally regarded as seeing the start of modern philosophy, and the shaking off of the mediÃ¦val approach, especially scholasticism. ... In the 18th century the philosophies of The Enlightenment would begin to have dramatic effect, and the landmark works of philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau would have an electrifying effect on a new generation of thinkers. ... The 20th century brought with it upheavals that produced a series of conflicting developments within philosophy over the basis of knowledge and the validity of various absolutes. ... Postmodern philosophy is an eclectic and elusive movement characterized by its criticism of Western philosophy. ... The term contemporary philosopher refers not just to figures who are alive, but also those who died within the past three decades, irrespective of when their major philosophy works were written or when their work was most popular. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The term Indian philosophy may refer to any of several traditions of philosophical thought, including: Hindu philosophy Buddhist philosophy Jain philosophy Sikh philosophy Carvaka atheist philosophy Lokayata materialist philosophy Tantric religious philosophy Bhakti religious philosophy Sufi religious philosophy Ahmadi religious philosophy Political and military philosophy such as that of Chanakya... Yin/Yang symbol and ba gua poopoo outside of Nanning city, Guangxi province. ... There has been a continuous history of philosophy in Korea, that goes back more than two thousand years. ... Christian philosophy is a catch-all expression for a two-millennia tradition of rational thought that attempts to fuse the fields of philosophy with the religious teachings of Christianity. ... Islamic philosophy (Ø§Ù„ÙÙ„Ø³ÙØ© Ø§Ù„Ø¥Ø³Ù„Ø§Ù…ÙŠØ©) is a part of the Islamic studies, and is a longstanding attempt to create harmony between faith, reason or philosophy, and the religious teachings of Islam. ... Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Western philosophy is a modern claim that there is a line of related philosophical thinking, beginning in ancient Greece (Greek philosophy) and the ancient Near East (the Abrahamic religions), that continues to this day. ... The Age of Reason is either Thomas Paines book The Age of Reason. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... Kittens are often considered quite cute. ... Ethics (from the Ancient Greek ethikos, meaning arising from habit) is one of the major branches of philosophy, one that covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as right, wrong, good, evil, and responsibility. ... Logic, from Classical Greek Î»ÏŒÎ³Î¿Ï‚ (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, (but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of criteria for the evaluation of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy among philosophers. ... The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density. ... Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (4 January 1643 â€“ 31 March 1727) [OS: 25 December 1642 â€“ 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher who is generally regarded as one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians in history. ... This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer or more simplified. ...

The intellectual leaders regarded themselves as a courageous elite who would lead the world into progress from a long period of doubtful tradition, irrationality, superstition, and tyranny, which they imputed to the Dark Ages. The movement helped create the intellectual framework for the American and French Revolutions, the Latin American independence movement, and the Polish Constitution of May 3; and led to the rise of liberalism and capitalism. It is matched with the high baroque and classical eras in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts; it receives contemporary attention as being one of the central models for many movements in the modern period. The word tradition, comes from the Latin word traditio which means to hand down or to hand over. ... Petrarch, who conceived the idea of a European Dark Age. From Cycle of Famous Men and Women, Andrea di Bartolo di Bargillac, c. ... The French Revolution (1789â€“1799) was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization. ... The term Latin American Revolutions refers to the various revolutions that took place during the early 1800s that resulted in the creation of a number of independent countries in the Latin American region. ... May 3rd Constitution (painting by Jan Matejko, 1891). ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... Modern can simply mean something that is up-to-date, trendy, new, or from the present time. ...

History of Enlightenment philosophy

Another important movement in 18th century philosophy, closely related to it, focused on belief and piety. Some of its proponents, such as George Berkeley, attempted to demonstrate rationally the existence of a supreme being. Piety and belief in this period were integral to the exploration of natural philosophy and ethics, in addition to political theories of the age. However, prominent Enlightenment philosophers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and David Hume questioned and attacked the existing institutions of both Church and State. Bishop George Berkeley George Berkeley (British English://; Irish English: //) (12 March 1685 â€“ 14 January 1753), also known as Bishop Berkeley, was an influential Irish philosopher whose primary philosophical achievement is the advancement of what has come to be called subjective idealism, summed up in his dictum, Esse est percipi (To... Natural philosophy is a term applied to the objective study of nature and the physical universe before the development of modern science. ... Ethics (from the Ancient Greek ethikos, meaning arising from habit) is one of the major branches of philosophy, one that covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as right, wrong, good, evil, and responsibility. ... Politics is a process by which decisions are made within groups. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Voltaire at 24 years of age by Nicolas de LargilliÃ¨re. ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 â€“ July 2, 1778) was a Geneva-born philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. ... David Hume (April 26, 1711 â€“ August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian, as well as an important figure of Western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment. ... A church building (or simply church) is a building used in Christian worship. ... A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern a society, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ...

The 18th century also saw a continued rise of empirical philosophical ideas, and their application to political economy, government and sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology. In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density. ... Chemistry (from the Greek word Ï‡Î·Î¼ÎµÎ¯Î± (chemeia) meaning cast together or pour together) is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms (such as molecules, crystals, and metals). ... Biology (from Greek Î²Î¯Î¿Ï‚ Î»ÏŒÎ³Î¿Ï‚, see below) is the branch of science dealing with the study of life. ...

The Enlightenment (if thought of as a short period) was preceded by the Age of Reason or (if thought of as a long period) by the Renaissance and the Reformation. It was followed by Romanticism. The Age of Reason is either Thomas Paines book The Age of Reason. ... Raphael was famous for depicting illustrious figures of the Classical past with the features of his Renaissance contemporaries. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ...

The boundaries of the Enlightenment cover much of the seventeenth century as well, though others term the previous era "The Age of Reason." For the present purposes, these two eras are split; however, it is equally acceptable to think of them conjoined as one long period. William Blakes Newton (1795), colour print with pen & ink and watercolour. ... William Blakes Newton (1795), colour print with pen & ink and watercolour. ... The quality of this article or section may be compromised by peacock terms. You can help Wikipedia by removing peacock terms. ... The Age of Reason is a philosophical treatise written by the 18th Century British intellectual Thomas Paine, best remembered as the author of the political pamphlet Common Sense, credited with exciting colonial opinion in support of the American Revolutionary War. ... Lumping and splitting refers to a well known problem in any discipline which has to place individual examples into rigorously defined catagories. ...

Europe had been ravaged by religious wars; when peace in the political situation had been restored, after the Peace of Westphalia and the English Civil War, an intellectual upheaval overturned the accepted belief that mysticism and revelation are the primary sources of knowledge and wisdom—which was blamed for fomenting political instability. Instead, (according to those that split the two periods), the Age of Reason sought to establish axiomatic philosophy and absolutism as foundations for knowledge and stability. Epistemology, in the writings of Michel de Montaigne and René Descartes, was based on extreme skepticism and inquiry into the nature of "knowledge." The goal of a philosophy based on self-evident axioms reached its height with Baruch (Benedictus de) Spinoza's Ethics, which expounded a pantheistic view of the universe where God and Nature were one. This idea then became central to the Enlightenment from Newton through to Jefferson. The ideas of Pascal, Leibniz, Galileo and other philosophers of the previous period also contributed to and greatly influenced the Enlightenment; for instance, according to E. Cassirer, Leibniz’s treatise On Wisdom ". . . identified the central concept of the Enlightenment and sketched its theoretical programme" (Cassirer 1979: 121–123). There was a wave of change across European thinking, exemplified by Newton's natural philosophy, which combined mathematics of axiomatic proof with mechanics of physical observation, a coherent system of verifiable predictions, which set the tone for what followed Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in the century after. The Ratification of the Treaty of MÃ¼nster by Gerard Terborch (1648) Banquet of the Amsterdam Civic Guard in Celebration of the Peace of MÃ¼nster by Bartholomeus van der Helst, 1648 The Peace of Westphalia, also known as the Treaties of MÃ¼nster and OsnabrÃ¼ck, refers to the... The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651. ... Michel de Montaigne Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (IPA pronunciation: []) (February 28, 1533 â€“ September 13, 1592) was an influential French Renaissance writer, generally considered to be the inventor of the personal essay. ... For other things named Descartes, see Descartes (disambiguation). ... Benedictus de Spinoza (November 24, 1632 â€“ February 21, 1677), named Baruch Spinoza (Hebrew: ×‘×¨×•×š ×©×¤×™× ×•×–×”) by his synagogue elders, and known as Bento de Espinosa or Bento dEspiÃ±oza in his native Amsterdam, was a Jewish-Dutch philosopher. ... Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623 â€“ August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 â€“ January 8, 1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomer, astrologer and philosopher who is closely associated with the scientific revolution. ... Natural philosophy is a term applied to the objective study of nature and the physical universe before the development of modern science. ... An axiom is a sentence or proposition that is taken for granted as true, and serves as a starting point for deducing other truths. ... Newtons own copy of his Principia, with hand written corrections for the second edition. ...

The Age of Enlightenment is also prominent in the history of Judaism, perhaps because of its conjunction with the political and social emancipation of many of Western Europe's Jews.

Key conflicts within Enlightenment-period philosophy

As with theology became a source of partisan debate, with different schools attempting to develop rationales for their viewpoints, which then, in turn, became generally accepted. Thus philosophers such as Spinoza searched for a metaphysics of ethics. This trend later influenced pietism and eventually transcendental searches such as those by Immanuel Kant. Baruch Spinoza Benedictus de Spinoza (November 24, 1632 - February 21, 1677), named Baruch Spinoza by his synagogue elders and known as Bento de Spinoza or Bento dEspiñoza in the community in which he grew up. ... Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late-17th century to the mid-18th century. ... In philosophy, transcendental/transcendence, has three different but related primary meanings, all of them derived from the words literal meaning (from Latin), of climbing or going beyond: one that originated in Ancient philosophy, one in Medieval philosophy and one in modern philosophy. ... Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 â€“ 12 February 1804), was a German philosopher from KÃ¶nigsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ...

Religion was linked to another concept which inspired a great amount of Enlightenment thought, namely the rise of the Nation-state. In medieval and Renaissance periods, the state was restricted by the need to work through a host of intermediaries. This system existed because of poor communication, where localism thrived in return for loyalty to some central organization. With the improvements in transportation, organization, navigation and finally the influx of gold and silver from trade and conquest, however, the state assumed more and more authority and power. Intellectuals responded with a series of theories on the purpose of, and limits of state power. Therefore, during The Enlightenment absolutism was cemented and a string of philosophers reacted by advocating limitation, from John Locke forward, who influenced both Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Enlightenment ideas influenced organisations seeking to effect state and social development, such as the Freemasons and Illuminati. And they ultimately had a profound effect on the actions of politically active individuals worldwide. The term nation-state, while often used interchangeably with the terms unitary state and independent state, refers properly to the parallel occurence of a state and a nation. ... Enlightened Absolutism (also known as benevolent despotism or enlightened despotism) is a term used to describe the actions of absolute rulers who were influenced by the Enlightenment, a historical period of the 18th and early 19th centuries. ... John Locke (August 29, 1632 â€“ October 28, 1704) was an influential English philosopher. ... Voltaire at 24 years of age by Nicolas de LargilliÃ¨re. ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 â€“ July 2, 1778) was a Geneva-born philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. ... American Square & Compasses Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organization. ... The Illuminati is the name of many groups, modern and historical, real and fictitious, verified and alleged. ...

Within the period of the Enlightenment, these issues began to be explored in the question of what constituted the proper relationship of the citizen to the monarch or the state. The idea that society is a contract between individual and some larger entity, whether society or state, continued to grow throughout this period. A series of philosophers, including Rousseau, Montesquieu, Hume and Jefferson advocated this idea. Furthermore, thinkers of this age advocated the idea that nationality had a basis beyond mere preference. Philosophers such as Johann Gottfried von Herder reasserted the idea from Greek antiquity that language had a decisive influence on cognition and thought, and that the meaning of a particular book or text was open to deeper exploration based on deeper connections, an idea now called hermeneutics. The original focus of his scholarship was to delve into the meaning in the Bible and in order to gain a deeper understanding of it. These two concepts - of the contractual nature between the state and the citizen, and the reality of the nation beyond that contract, had a decisive influence in the development of liberalism, democracy and constitutional government which followed. Social contract theory (or contractarianism) is a concept used in philosophy, political science, and sociology to denote an implicit agreement within a state regarding the rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens, or more generally a similar concord between a group and its members, or between individuals. ... Rousseau is a French surname. ... Montesquieu can refer to: Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu Several communes of France: Montesquieu, in the Hérault département Montesquieu, in the Lot-et-Garonne département Montesquieu, in the Tarn-et-Garonne département This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages... David Hume (April 26, 1711 â€“ August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian, as well as an important figure of Western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment. ... Thomas Jefferson(April 13, 1743 N.S. â€“ July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801â€“1809), principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and an influential founder of the United States. ... Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder (August 25, 1744 - December 18, 1803), German poet, critic, theologian, and philosopher, is best known for his concept of the Volk and is generally considered the father of ethnic nationalism. ... Hermeneutics may be described as the development and study of theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts. ... For other uses, see Bible (disambiguation). ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ...

At the same time, the integration of algebraic thinking, acquired from the Islamic world over the previous two centuries, and geometric thinking which had dominated Western mathematics and philosophy since at least Eudoxus, precipitated a scientific and mathematical revolution. Sir Isaac Newton's greatest claim to prominence came from a systematic application of algebra to geometry, and synthesizing a workable calculus which was applicable to scientific problems. The Enlightenment was a time when the solar system was truly discovered: with the accurate calculation of orbits, such as Halley's comet, the discovery of the first planet since antiquity, Uranus by William Herschel, and the calculation of the mass of the Sun using Newton's theory of universal gravitation. These series of discoveries had a momentous effect on both pragmatic commerce and philosophy. The excitement engendered by creating a new and orderly vision of the world, as well as the need for a philosophy of science which could encompass the new discoveries, greatly influenced both religious and secular ideas. If Newton could order the cosmos with natural philosophy, so, many argued, could political philosophy order the body politic. Algebra is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of structure, relation and quantity. ... Table of Geometry, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Eudoxus of Cnidus (Greek Εύδοξος) (410 or 408 BC - 355 or 347 BC) was a Greek astronomer, mathematician, physician, scholar and friend of Plato. ... Calculus is a central branch of mathematics, developed from algebra and geometry. ... Comet Halley as taken with the Halley Multicolor Camera on the ESA Giotto mission. ... Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 120 kPa Hydrogen 83% Helium 15% Methane 1. ... Sir Wilhelm Friedrich Herschel, FRS KH (November 15, 1738 â€“ August 25, 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer who became famous for discovering the planet Uranus. ...

Within the Enlightenment, two main theories contended to be the basis of that ordering: divine right and natural law. It might seem that divine right would yield absolutist ideas, and that natural law would lead to theories of liberty. The writing of Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704) set the paradigm for the divine right: that the universe was ordered by a reasonable God, and therefore his representative on earth had the powers of that God. The orderliness of the cosmos was seen as proof of God; therefore it was a proof of the power of monarchy. Natural law, began, not as a reaction against divinity, but instead, as an abstraction: God did not rule arbitrarily, but through natural laws that he enacted on earth. Thomas Hobbes, though an absolutist in government, drew this argument in Leviathan. Once the concept of natural law was invoked, however, it took on a life of its own. If natural law could be used to bolster the position of the monarchy, it could also be used to assert the rights of subjects of that monarch, that if there were natural laws, then there were natural rights associated with them, just as there are rights under man-made laws. Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (September 27, 1627 - April 12, 1704) was a French bishop, theologian, and court preacher. ... Hobbes redirects here. ... Frontispiece of Leviathan Leviathan was a book written in 1651 by Thomas Hobbes, is one of the most famous and influential books of political philosophy. ... Natural rights are universal rights that are seen as inherent in the nature of the world, and not contingent on human actions or beliefs. ...

What both theories had in common was the need for an orderly and comprehensible function of government. The "Enlightened Despotism" of, for example, Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia (a state within The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation), is not based on mystical appeals to authority, but on the pragmatic invocation of state power as necessary to hold back chaotic and anarchic warfare and rebellion. Frederick the Great was raised by his French governess, importing the Enlightenment to "Germany." Regularization and standardization were seen as good things because they allowed the state to reach its power outwards over the entirety of its domain and because they liberated people from being entangled in endless local custom. Additionally, they expanded the sphere of economic and social activity. Catherine II (Екатерина II Алексеевна: Yekaterína II Alekséyevna, April 21, 1729 - November 6, 1796), born Sophie Augusta Fredericka, known as Catherine the Great, reigned as empress of Russia from... Frederick the Great Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich der Große, Frederick the Great, January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia 1740–86. ...

Thus rationalization, standardization and the search for fundamental unities occupied much of the Enlightenment and its arguments over proper methodology and nature of understanding. The culminating efforts of the Enlightenment: for example the economics of Adam Smith, the physical chemistry of Antoine Lavoisier, the idea of evolution pursued by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the declaration by Jefferson of inalienable rights, in the end overshadowed the idea of divine right and direct alteration of the world by the hand of God. It was also the basis for overthrowing the idea of a completely rational and comprehensible universe, and led, in turn, to the metaphysics of Hegel and the search for the emotional truth of Romanticism. Adam Smith, FRSE, (baptised June 5, 1723 O.S. (June 16 N.S.) â€“ July 17, 1790) was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. ... Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 â€“ May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 26, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... Romanticism was a secular and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ...

Role of the Enlightenment in later philosophy

The Enlightenment occupies a central role in the justification for the movement known as modernism. The neo-classicizing trend in modernism came to see itself as being a period of rationality which was overturning foolishly established traditions, and therefore analogized itself to the Encyclopediasts and other philosophes. A variety of 20th century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism traced their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment, and away from the purported emotionalism of the 19th century. Geometric order, rigor and reductionism were seen as virtues of the Enlightenment. The modern movement points to reductionism and rationality as crucial aspects of Enlightenment thinking of which it is the inheritor, as opposed to irrationality and emotionalism. In this view, the Enlightenment represents the basis for modern ideas of liberalism against superstition and intolerance. Influential philosophers who have held this view are Jürgen Habermas and Isaiah Berlin. Modernism is a term which covers a variety of political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... Descartes held that, unlike humans, animals could be reductively explained as automata â€“ De homines 1622) Reductionism in philosophy is a theory that asserts that the nature of complex things can always be reduced to (explained by) simpler or more fundamental things. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... It has been suggested that Magical thinking be merged into this article or section. ... Intolerance is the lack of ability or willingness to tolerate something. ... JÃ¼rgen Habermas JÃ¼rgen Habermas (born June 18, 1929 in DÃ¼sseldorf) is a German philosopher, political scientist and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory, best known for his concept of the public sphere. ... Sir Isaiah Berlin, OM, (June 6, 1909 â€“ November 5, 1997) was a political philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the 20th century. ...

This view asserts that the Enlightenment was the point where Europe broke through what historian Peter Gay calls "the sacred circle," where previous dogma circumscribed thinking. The Enlightenment is held, in this view, to be the source of critical ideas, such as the centrality of freedom, democracy and reason as being the primary values of a society. This view argues that the establishment of a contractual basis of rights would lead to the market mechanism and capitalism, the scientific method, religious and racial tolerance, and the organization of states into self-governing republics through democratic means. In this view, the tendency of the philosophes in particular to apply rationality to every problem is considered to be the essential change. From this point on, thinkers and writers were held to be free to pursue the truth in whatever form, without the threat of sanction for violating established ideas. Political freedom is the right, or the capacity, of self-determination as an expression of the individual will. ... Reason is a term used in philosophy and other human sciences to refer to the faculty of the human mind that creates and operates with abstract concepts. ... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ... Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... The cross of the war memorial and a menorah for Hanukkah coexist in Oxford. ... The Philosophes (French for Philosophers) were a group of French thinkers of the 18th century Enlightenment. ...

With the end of the Second World War and the rise of post-modernity, these same features came to be regarded as liabilities - excessive specialization, failure to heed traditional wisdom or provide for unintended consequences, and the romanticization of Enlightenment figures - such as the Founding Fathers of the United States, prompted a backlash against both Science and Enlightenment based dogma in general. Philosophers such as Michel Foucault are often understood as arguing that the age of reason had to construct a vision of unreason as being demonic and subhuman, and therefore evil and befouling, whence by analogy to argue that rationalism in the modern period is, likewise, a construction. In their book, Dialectic of Enlightenment, Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno wrote a penetrating critique of what they perceived as the contradictions of Enlightenment thought: Enlightenment was seen as being at once liberatory and, through the domination of instrumental rationality tending towards totalitarianism. This article is becoming very long. ... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century... Founding Fathers are persons instrumental in the establishment of an institution, usually a political institution, especially those connected to the origination of its ideals. ... Michel Foucault (October 15, 1926 â€“ June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher who held a chair at the CollÃ¨ge de France, which he gave the title The History of Systems of Thought. ... Dialectic of Enlightenment, written by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno made its first appearance in 1944 under the title Dialektik der AufklÃ¤rung by Social Studies Association, Inc. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and JÃ¼rgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg Max Horkheimer (February 14, 1895 â€“ July 7, 1973) was a Jewish-German philosopher and sociologist, known especially as the founder and guiding thinker of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and JÃ¼rgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ... Instrumentally rational agents take the course of action which will optimally achieve their desired ends in any situation. ...

Alternatively, the Enlightenment was used as a powerful symbol to argue for the supremacy of rationalism and rationalization, and therefore any attack on it is connected to despotism and madness, for example in the writings of Gertrude Himmelfarb. Gertrude Himmelfarb (born August 8, 1922) is an American historian known for her studies of the intellectual history of the Victorian era, particularly of Social Darwinism; and as a conservative cultural critic. ...

Precursors of the Enlightenment

Francisco SuÃ¡rez (1548â€“1617) was a Spanish philosopher and theologian, generally regarded as having been the greatest scholastic after Thomas Aquinas. ... Juan de Mariana Juan de Mariana, (1536, Talavera - February 17th 1624, Madrid), was a Spanish historian. ... John Milton, English poet John Milton (December 9, 1608 â€“ November 8, 1674) was an English poet, best-known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. ... John Locke (August 29, 1632 â€“ October 28, 1704) was an influential English philosopher. ... Polish Brethren (also called Antitrinitians, Arians, or Socinians) was the name of a Christian Polish sect from the 16th century. ... Louis XIV King of France and Navarre By Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701) Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638–September 1, 1715) reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ... For the play, see Henry VIII (play). ... For other things named Descartes, see Descartes (disambiguation). ... Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623 â€“ August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher. ... Hobbes redirects here. ... Sir Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC (22 January 1561 â€“ 9 April 1626) was an English astrologer, philosopher, statesman, spy, freemason and essayist. ... Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 â€“ May 24, 1543) was an astronomer who provided the first modern formulation of a heliocentric (sun-centered) theory of the solar system in his epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres). ... Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 â€“ January 8, 1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomer, astrologer and philosopher who is closely associated with the scientific revolution. ... Algebra is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of structure, relation and quantity. ... Analytic geometry, also called coordinate geometry and earlier referred to as Cartesian geometry, is the study of geometry using the principles of algebra. ...

Important figures of the Enlightenment era

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (April 22, 1724 – February 12, 1804) was a Prussian philosopher, generally regarded as one of Europes most influential thinkers and the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment. ... The 18th century writers in France who compiled the French EncyclopÃ©die (Encyclopedia), most prominently Diderot, were known as the EncyclopÃ©distes. ... Voltaire at 24 years of age by Nicolas de LargilliÃ¨re. ... Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (July 1, 1646 in Leipzig - November 14, 1716 in Hannover) was a German philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer of Sorb descent. ... Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 â€“ July 2, 1778) was a Geneva-born philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. ... Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet (September 17, 1743 - March 28, 1794) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist who devised the concept of a Condorcet method. ... Claude Adrien HelvÃ©tius (January 1715 - December 26, 1771) was a French philosopher and litterateur. ... For other uses of Fontenelle, see Fontenelle (disambiguation). ... Olympe de Gouges (May 7, 1748 - November 3, 1793) (born Marie Gouze) was a playwright and journalist whose feminist writings reached a large audience. ... Ignacy Krasicki Ignacy Krasicki (February 3, 1735, in Galicia â€” March 14, 1801, in Berlin) was a Polish prince of the Roman Catholic Church, a social critic, a leading writer, and the outstanding poet of the Polish Enlightenment, hailed by contemporaries as the Prince of Poets. ... François Quesnay. ... Baruch Spinoza Benedictus de Spinoza (November 24, 1632 _ February 21, 1677), named Baruch Spinoza by his synagogue elders and known as Bento de Spinoza or Bento dEspiñoza in the community in which he grew up. ... Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria (or the Marchese de Beccaria-Bonesana) (March 11, 1738 - November 28, 1794) was an Italian philosopher and politician. ... Adam Smith, FRSE, (baptised June 5, 1723 O.S. (June 16 N.S.) â€“ July 17, 1790) was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. ... Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (4 January 1643 â€“ 31 March 1727) [OS: 25 December 1642 â€“ 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher who is generally regarded as one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians in history. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 â€“ May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. ... Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (September 7, 1707 – April 16, 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, biologist, cosmologist and author. ... Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (ÐœÐ¸Ñ…Ð°Ð¸ÌÐ» Ð’Ð°ÑÐ¸ÌÐ»ÑŒÐµÐ²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð›Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾Ð½Ð¾ÌÑÐ¾Ð²) (November 19 (November 8, Old Style), 1711 â€“ April 15 (April 4, Old Style), 1765) was a Russian writer and polymath who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. ... Portrait of Mikhailo Mikhailovich Shcherbatov Prince Mikhailo Mikhailovich Shcherbatov (July 22, 1733 - December 12, 1790) was a leading ideologue and exponent of the Russian Enlightenment, on the par with Mikhail Lomonosov and Nikolay Novikov. ... Portrait of Princess Dashkov from the Hermitage Museum. ... Montesquieu can refer to: Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu Several communes of France: Montesquieu, in the Hérault département Montesquieu, in the Lot-et-Garonne département Montesquieu, in the Tarn-et-Garonne département This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages... Mary Wollstonecraft (circa 1797) by John Opie. ... Jean le Rond dAlembert, pastel by Maurice Quentin de la Tour Jean le Rond dAlembert (November 16, 1717 â€“ October 29, 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist and philosopher. ... Thomas Abbt (born 25 November 1738 in Ulm - died 3 November 1766 in Bückeburg) was a mathematician and German writer. ... Liberty Leading the People by EugÃ¨ne Delacroix Nationalism is an ideology [1] that holds that a nation is the fundamental unit for human social life, and takes precedence over any other social and political principles. ... Pierre Bayle (November 18, 1647 â€“ December 28, 1706) was a French philosopher and writer. ... Lord Monboddo, pencil sketch by John Brown, circa 1777 James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (October 25, 1714 - May 26, 1799) was a Scottish judge, scholar of language evolution and philosopher. ... A jurist is a professional who studies, develops, applies or otherwise deals with the law. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... A hypothetical phylogenetic tree of all extant organisms, based on 16S rRNA gene sequence data, showing the evolutionary history of the three domains of life, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. ... The Scottish Enlightenment was a period of intellectual ferment in Scotland, running from approximately 1740 to 1800. ... James Boswell James Boswell (October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795) was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Samuel Johnson circa 1772, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. ... Today, films and television programs surrounding the lives of famous people are a major part of the entertainment industry. ... Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729 â€“ July 9, 1797) was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... This article deals with conservatism as a political philosophy. ... Portrait of Diderot by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767 Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 â€“ July 31, 1784) was a French philosopher and writer. ... Free will is the philosophical doctrine that holds that our choices are ultimately up to ourselves. ... Ignacy Krasicki Ignacy Krasicki (February 3, 1735, in Galicia â€” March 14, 1801, in Berlin) was a Polish prince of the Roman Catholic Church, a social critic, a leading writer, and the outstanding poet of the Polish Enlightenment, hailed by contemporaries as the Prince of Poets. ... For other persons named StanisÅ‚aw Poniatowski, see StanisÅ‚aw Poniatowski. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Benjamin Franklin (January 17 [O.S. January 6] 1706 â€“ April 17, 1790) was one of the most well known Founding Fathers of the United States. ... A declaration of independence is a proclamation of the independence of an aspiring state or states. ... Edward Gibbon (1737-1794). ... Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder (August 25, 1744 - December 18, 1803), German poet, critic, theologian, and philosopher, is best known for his concept of the Volk and is generally considered the father of ethnic nationalism. ... Self rule is used to described a people or group being able to exercise all of the necessary functions of power without intervention from any authority which they cannot themselves alter. ... David Hume (April 26, 1711 â€“ August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian, as well as an important figure of Western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment. ... In philosophy generally, empiricism is a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience. ... In ordinary usage, skepticism or scepticism (Greek: skeptomai, to look about, to consider) refers to an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object, the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain, or the method of suspended... Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that do not distinguish the supernatural from nature. ... Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 â€“ 12 February 1804), was a German philosopher from KÃ¶nigsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ... Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (May 19, 1762 - January 27, 1814) has significance in the history of Western philosophy as one of the progenitors of German idealism and as a follower of Kant. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... Thomas Jefferson(April 13, 1743 N.S. â€“ July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801â€“1809), principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and an influential founder of the United States. ... U.S. Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is the document in which the Thirteen Colonies in North America declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. ... The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... Johann Adam Weishaupt (* 6 February 1748 in Ingolstadt; â€ 18 November 1830 in Gotha) was a German who founded the Order of the Illuminati. ... Noble Family KoÅ‚Å‚Ä…taj Coat of Arms Kotwica Parents Antoni KoÅ‚Å‚Ä…taj Marianna MierzeÅ„ska Consorts None Children None Date of Birth April 1, 1750 Place of Birth NiecisÅ‚owice Date of Death February 28, 1812 Place of Death Warsaw Hugo KoÅ‚Å‚Ä…taj (1750-1812) was a Polish Roman Catholic... May 3rd Constitution (painting by Jan Matejko, 1891). ... KoÅ›ciuszko Uprising 1794 The KoÅ›ciuszko Uprising took place in Poland in 1794. ... Proclamation of PoÅ‚aniec (also known as PoÅ‚aniec Manifesto, Polish: ) issued on May 7, 1794 by Tadeusz KoÅ›ciuszko near the town of PoÅ‚aniec, was one of the most notable events of the KoÅ›ciuszko Uprising in Poland, and is the most famous legal acts in of the... Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (22 January 1729 â€“ 15 February 1781), writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic, was one of the most outstanding German representatives of the Enlightenment era. ... John Locke (August 29, 1632 â€“ October 28, 1704) was an influential English philosopher. ... // Use of the term In common usage, property means ones own thing and refers to the relationship between individuals and the objects which they see as being their own to dispense with as they see fit. ... Leandro FernÃ¡ndez de MoratÃn, born March 10, 1760 â€“ died June 21, 1828, was a Spanish dramatist and neoclassical poet. ... Republicanism is the idea of a nation being governed as a republic. ... Montesquieu can refer to: Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu Several communes of France: Montesquieu, in the Hérault département Montesquieu, in the Lot-et-Garonne département Montesquieu, in the Tarn-et-Garonne département This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages... Portrait of Nikolay Novikov, by Dmitry Levitzky. ... Mikeshins Monument to Catherine the Great in front of the Alexandrine Theatre in St. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Jovellanos painted by Goya Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (5 January 1744 - 27 November 1811), Spanish statesman and author, was born at GijÃ³n in Asturias, Spain. ...

External links

Francisco de Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799): the artists exhausted and feverish doze A term widely used in the second half of the twentieth century to refer to a movement that arose in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries in opposition to the eighteenth century... Tzvetan Todorov (bg: Ð¦Ð²ÐµÑ‚Ð°Ð½ Ð¢Ð¾Ð´Ð¾Ñ€Ð¾Ð²) (born 1939 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian philosopher. ...

References

Categories: Philosophy | Historical eras | Philosophical movements | Secularism | The Enlightenment | Western culture | History of Europe Ernst Cassirer (July 28, 1874 â€“ April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. ... Peter Gay (June 20, 1923-), a Jewish American historian of the social history of ideas, born in Berlin as Peter Joachim FrÃ¶hlich . ... Roy Porter (31 December 1946 to 3 March 2002) was a British historian noted for his work on the history of medicine. ... Arthur Herman is a conservative Amercian historian of Anglo-American history. ... President George W. Bush and Laura Bush stand with 2005 National Humanities Medal recipient Alan Kors. ... James Buchan, born in 1954, is a British novelist and journalist. ... Catholic phenomenologist and religious philosopher. ... Gertrude Himmelfarb (born August 8, 1922) is an American historian known for her studies of the intellectual history of the Victorian era, particularly of Social Darwinism; and as a conservative cultural critic. ... Stephen Eric Bronner (b. ... Stephen Eric Bronner (b. ... Henry F. May is the Margaret Byrne Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley (Emeritus). ...